A woman was left horrified when she allegedly found 40 dead cockroaches in her takeaway meal.
In early March, a resident of Shantou City in South China's Guangdong Province bought a braised duck dish for her dinner, ordering her meal through an unidentified online food delivery platform.
She was reportedly looking forward to an evening of eating with her companions but was shocked when one friend discovered a dead cockroach in the food.
It was then that the group of diners paused and took a closer look at the meal, eventually discovering 40 carcasses.
A viral video online apparently filmed by one of the friends shows the group using their chopsticks to pick out the insects, which seemed to blend in with the braised duck due to their colour. They later placed the dead bugs on two pieces of tissue paper laid on the table.
It's been reported that the woman complained to the restaurant and then informed the police about the incident. According to Asia Wire reports, the police is now investigating the case, along with officials from the local Food and Drug Administration.
The Mirror claimed the restaurant offered an apology and announced a 15-day suspension of business to investigate the incident.
Reporters have speculated over whether the contamination is an indicator that the food being served was several days or weeks old, whether it had simply been left uncovered, or whether there was criminal intent behind the incident. No conclusion has been reached so far.
It's not the only food scandal to take place in China this month; one of the country's most prestigious high schools sparked outrage in March after piles of expired mouldy food were found in its canteen kitchen.
Mouldy bread, rotting meat and seafood were reportedly discovered at the Chengdu No 7 Experimental High School, with one parent claiming the food was "stinky and disgusting" and comparing it to pig slop.
The scandal first emerged when a small group of parents were invited to attend a tree planting event at the private high school in Chengdu, the capital city of China's Sichuan province, on March 11.
While at the private school, which allegedly costs about 20 times the amount a public school would, they discovered the mouldy and rotting food.
"[The items looked like they had] been in a freezer for years, [it looked] like zombie meat," a father, who has a daughter and son enrolled in the school, told the BBC: "I smelled the pork, it was stinky. [There was] ginger, which looked disgusting too."
Two days later, Chengdu No 7 Experimental High School apologised for the incident and announced that it had terminated its contract with the food supplier.
A spokesperson added they had submitted raw ingredients for inspection to the local education and market supervision bureaus and that a number of school officials had been suspended in connection with the incident and would be investigated.
In addition, the district’s education bureau would take over handling school meals during a "transition period," and a long-term food safety mechanism would be formed that would involve parents.
